Examining the cost of warehousing

With minimal upfront costs and support expenses built into the licence, an advanced cloud-based WMS comes out way ahead of hard-coded and inflexible, legacy alternatives – just about any way the numbers are crunched.

First and foremost, check that your WMS supplier receives most of its revenue for the actual application being delivered and not bespoke modifications. 

In the new normal, cloud software is also a must have. It is quick and easy to onboard – for rapid ROI – plus expenses are further restricted down the line thanks to its superior agility and configurability. Software can be implemented faster and even remotely, for little to no downtime, and upgrading to the latest version is automatic. 

With ‘servicing’ a cloud WMS not applicable either, IT costs are drastically reduced too and this balancing of short and long-term expenses especially works for high-growth e-commerce businesses that can't afford, or pivot with ,a fussy and rigid on-premise solution.

So, when evaluating WMS suppliers, understanding their rate structure and recurring fees, plus how they both impact your own business projections, keeps TCO manageable. 

Don’t be seduced by promises of ‘customisation’ either, because in my experience it unnecessarily ties you in and ultimately leads to budget overruns and problematic implementation. Having a cloud-based solution that starts delivering almost immediately is far more cost-effective than one that needs to be tinkered with before it leads to any meaningful results. 

Quite simply, a scalable, easily configured, API friendly and robust WMS will offer the most cost-effective pathway to meet the dynamic challenges of B2C multichannel fulfilment.

For more information, visit www.snapfulfil.com